Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

We love exploring colors of the rainbow through hands-on sensory play of all kinds! This rainbow rice sensory bin came as a big surprise project today, but what a fun and beautiful one at that! Rice bins are one of our most enjoyed activities for sensory play!

RAINBOW RICE SENSORY BIN FOR HANDS-ON PLAY!

HOW TO DYE RICE

All you need is white rice, vinegar, food coloring and a paper towel or two! I have a plastic container that I save just for this purpose. It’s amazing the things I now have in my kitchen that are solely used and bought for our activities and lessons!

YOU WILL NEED:

vinegar

food coloring

plastic container with a lid

paper towels or paper plates

rice

DYING RICE:

Measure 1 Cup of Rice and place into the container

Add 1 Teaspoon of Vinegar

Add as much food coloring as desired (deeper color= more food coloring)

Cover and SHAKE vigorously for a minute

Spread on paper towel or plate to dry

These should all be dry in an hour if you stick to the one cup per paper towel. I find the color is distributed the best this way too. For many sensory bins, I have made graded shades of colors for a fun twist. This has also allowed me to experiment with how much food coloring to use to achieve desired shades!

For rainbow rice make one cup for each color of the rainbow.

RICE SENSORY BIN

Rice is one of ourfavorite sensory bin fillers! My son likes to build his own rice sensory bin, so here is what I presented him with to put it all together himself.

Patiently waiting!

Learning about colors with rainbow rice sensory play!

Let the pouring begin! I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t just want to dump it all at once, but who was I to stop the impending fun of dumping stuff!

Then there was the mixing! It was so fun to see the rainbow rice colors mix together and discover little pockets of un-mixed colors in the corners. Then we got down to business and mixed pirate potions and hunted for gems. We had tasty treats in our bowls.

We filled the bottle, practiced screwing and unscrewing the “secret” treasure boxes and filled and dumped those too. I had little treasures in each one as well. I found this neat little screw-together container at the dollar store. Great fine motor skills work too!

Lastly, I gave him a little pitcher and some glass cups I picked up at a second hand store for some of our tray work. He poured drinks for us and we talked about even amounts in each cup! We definitely enjoyed sharing this rainbow rice sensory bin with each other this afternoon!

He loves the bright colors of the rainbow rice!

I love the way this rainbow rice sensory bin and gems look together. We ended up adding some other clear beads and the bin sort of sparkled with it all together!

COLORFUL RAINBOW RICE SENSORY BIN FOR FUN HANDS-ON PLAY!

Click on the image below or on the link to check out our more of our favorite rice sensory bins.